


Sorry

by Zoe13



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Guns, M/M, Mentions of Blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-23
Updated: 2014-08-23
Packaged: 2018-02-13 22:38:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2167800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoe13/pseuds/Zoe13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael is nervous about a man they've noticed around an unusual amount- a man who seems to be watching Luke.<br/>Luke nearly pays the ultimate price when he brushed it off.</p><p>Or- Luke is nearly shot during a concert and Michael takes the bullet for him</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sorry

It was three weeks before the first concert of the tour when Luke first noticed him.

"I think I've seen that guy before," he said, motioning to a man standing outside the window.

"He probably just lives near here," Calum said, shrugging.

Luke looked the man over- mousy brown hair, tan skin, khakis, button up- and nodded before going back to his pizza.

Michael watched the man for a while, frowning thoughtfully. 

_______

They went on a spontaneous road trip, a good four hours from where they all lived, and Michael pointed across the street as they paused on a sidewalk.

"Is that him, Luke?"

"Who?" Luke looked up from the map on his phone. "Oh look, it's that guy I saw the other day." 

_Mousy brown hair, tan skin, khakis, button up._

Michael felt a bit creeped out.

"Odd coincidence," Ashton said. "So what do you want for dinner? I'd really love something cheesy."

"I need meat," Calum said, scanning the nearby restaurants.

"It _is_ odd," Luke said to Michael. 

"Yeah," Michael said distractedly, "odd."

_______

The sixth time, Michael snapped.

"This dude is freaking me out," he said. "We see him everywhere and he's always staring at Luke like he caught him murdering kittens."

"It is weird," Calum said, frowning. 

The man- mousy brown hair, tan skin, khakis, button up- saw them looking in his direction and walked away. 

"You guys are just paranoid," Luke laughed. "He probably just lives here, remember, Calum?"

"Luke, I agree with them," Ashton said. "He doesn't walk around and eat or buy things or do anything like a normal person, he just appears and stares at you until he catches Michael glaring jealously."

Michael delivered a quick elbow to Ashton's side, his cheeks pink. Luke didn't notice. 

"Whatever," Luke said, obviously amused at them all.

"I'll give security the description," Calum said. "Just to be on the safe side."

_______

Luke didn't come to regret it until the first concert. It started out fine- he skirted the edges of flirting with Michael and felt exhilarated by the crowd's encouragement. Michael seemed relaxed for the first time since he'd gotten suspicious of the man and Luke felt relieved.

Michael felt more relaxed because of the heavy security they always had. But halfway through the last song he saw something familiar.  

 _Mousy brown hair, tan skin, khakis, button up._ He almost stopped playing, was about to alert security, when something cold and grey caught the light. Michael frantically looked around, catching the eyes of a security guard who followed his gaze to the man and sprang into action. 

He wasn't fast enough. The man raised the metal object- the _gun_ \- and his eyes were on Luke. 

Too much happened at once. Michael's guitar hit the stage with a crack, screams erupted around the room, the gun went off, the man was grabbed by security, and Luke and Michael hit the floor. The music immediately stopped and Ashton and Calum flew toward the boys on the floor. Security bounced up on stage and started shoving people out the doors or helping pin down the man. 

"Luke!" Michael was running his hands over the other boy frantically, searching for blood or anything like a wound. 

"Oh my god," Luke said faintly. He stood on shaking legs, grasping Calum for support. "I'm fine, I'm not hurt."

"Thank god," Michael breathed. He took Ashton's offered hand and pulled himself up. Suddenly he cried out, a hand flying to his stomach. "Fuck, I think- he-" 

He swayed and Luke reached toward him, fear in his eyes. Then he collapsed, hitting the stage beneath him. 

" _Michael_!" Luke dropped to his knees by him, laying a hand on him. It felt wet and he pulled it up to see that there was blood on it.  Blood was leaking onto Michael's shirt and Luke felt nauseous. "Oh my god! Someone call an ambulance! Michael, Michael, you _idiot_..." 

A security guard was already calling and Calum and Ashton completed a circle around Michael. Ashton had one of his sweat towels in his hand and was pushing down on the hole in Michael's stomach. Luke was crying, feeling absolutely useless. 

"Michael, Michael wake up!"

They could already hear sirens and Luke prayed that the medics would hurry. 

"He's not breathing," Calum said dazedly. "Oh my god, he's not breathing!"

Security pulled Calum away and then Ashton as the medics rushed into the room. Luke panicked, grabbing Michael by the shoulders. 

"No, no, no, Michael!" He wanted to shake him, to wake him up and yell at him for being so stupid. Hands grabbed at him and pulled him away. "Let go of me!" 

Then he and Calum and Ashton were huddled together watching as the medics hurried around. One was pushing on Michael's chest, trying to restart his heart. 

Luke felt detached as he looked down at his hands, remembering that they had blood on them as well as his pants and shirt. Michael's blood. 

He stumbled away from everyone and felt to his knees, bracing himself on his hands and vomiting. He heard people shouting to each other, heard their panic, and knew that it was bad. That Michael might _die_. 

When he turned, they were taking Michael away. 

"No!" he ran forward, wanted to see Michael again, wanted to touch him and know he was alive. This time it was Ashton who grabbed him, Calum grasping Luke's arm as well. 

"Luke, let them go! They're trying to save him!"

Luke's knees went weak and he fell to the floor, curling up and crying out of fear. He felt selfish when he realized that Ashton and Calum were busy trying to comfort him when they too could hardly hold back tears. 

But Michael- _his_ Michael- was dying, and Luke was already picturing a world without him. 

_______

In a few minutes everything had changed. Now they had been at the hospital for over an hour without a word. Luke had felt like he had all the time in the world to tell Michael how he felt but now he wanted nothing more than to look him in the eyes and just let him know. He _needed_ Michael to know. 

He felt guilty too. He had brushed it off, had laughed at Michael's paranoia and who had paid for it, for his naivety? 

Next to Luke, Calum and Ashton looked wrecked. They all did. They were pale with worry lines on their faces and fear in their eyes. 

"Why?" Ashton finally asked, breaking the cold silence. 

"I don't know," Calum said. "He must be insane. There's no reason to want to shoot Michael."

"He wasn't trying to shoot Michael," Luke said heavily. "He was trying to shoot me."

They turned to him in surprise and Ashton opened his mouth to speak but just then a policeman approached them and he shut it, turning to look at the officer. 

"Are you Ashton Irwin, Calum Hood, and Luke Hemmings?" He asked, reading off of a sheet of paper on a clipboard. 

"Yes," Calum answered, as he was the only one able to compose himself. 

"We need to ask you a few questions," the officer said. "We are aware that your friend is in surgery and so we've managed to get an empty room here to talk to you so that you can be alerted immediately when he's out."

"Thank you," Ashton said weakly. "What do you need to know?"

"Just follow me," the officer said. "I'm Officer McLellan."  

They stood and followed the man down the corridor. Luke's legs felt shaky and his hands were trembling, but he wasn't afraid of the officer. He could hardly think of anything but Michael, Michael who could still be dying. 

The room they entered was white like everywhere else. There were several chairs, a camera, and two other officers. Calum squeezed Luke's hand reassuringly. 

"Officer Rogers and Officer Blake," McLellan said, motioning first to the man, then to the woman. The boys nodded awkwardly and sat where they were motioned to sit. 

"Now we're going to be filming this," the woman, Blake, said. "But it most certainly will not be available to the public eye. Don't worry about charges, we can sort those out with your parents and management who will discuss it with you separately."

"None of you are suspects," Officer McLellan continued. "That may seem obvious to you but we have to consider everyone a suspect unless we have proof that they could not have committed the crime. We spoke with some witnesses and watched some concert footage and you're all in the clear."

They all nodded mutely and stared as McLellan sat down across from them. Rogers pulled out a clipboard and a pen and Blake turned the camera on. 

"The primary suspect's name is Patrick Sanders. He's refused to say a word. Here's a photograph."

He held up a picture and Luke saw the man they'd seen over the past few weeks so often. 

"You've seen him?" Rogers asked.

"We kept randomly seeing him around," Calum said. "Michael got nervous and we all started worrying a bit so we gave security a description."

Luke looked at his hands, feeling guilty. "I- I didn't really think much of it, I just thought he might live near us, but Michael said he was always watching me specifically."

"You?" McLellan asked. 

"He was trying to shoot me," Luke said. "Michael spotted him and got me out of the way." 

"That explains some of the weird footage," Rogers said to McLellan. McLellan nodded. 

"Alright. So Michael is suspicious of this man you keep seeing, you report it to security and give a description. He sees that man at the concert, possibly sees the gun, and knows he can't tell security in time. The man shoots, Michael knocks you out of the way, but he gets hit instead. Does that sound right?"

"Yes," Luke said faintly.

"Before he started following you, had any of you ever seen this man before?"

"No," Calum said, and the other two shook their heads. 

"He was always wearing the same outfit," Ashton said. "The same one he was wearing today."

Luke felt impatient. Michael could be dying, could be _dead_ , and he was stuck here talking about the man responsible. 

"Is there anything you can add? Have you received any threatening messages on or offline?"

"We don't really pay attention to the negative comments," Calum said. "But I think we'd notice death threats." 

"Would you feel comfortable with giving us usernames and passwords so we can look? We have privacy documents we can sign that bind us from using your accounts for anything other than searching for a threat."

Luke thought of Michael again and wanted this figured out. Calum and Ashton agreed too and they gave them their various account usernames and passwords. All three officers signed the documents but Luke wasn't that worried about it. 

"Alright," said McLellan. "We've been given your contact information. We'll notify you if we need anything more. You can go."

Rogers stood as Blake turned off the camera and the three boys followed him out. 

Sanders was standing in the corridor with his hands cuffed together. There was an officer on either side of him but he look unruffled. 

He grinned when he saw Luke, a wild grin shaded by his hair that was falling into his eyes.

"Seems like I cut you up worse getting him instead," he sneered. 

Rage filled Luke, pure, white hot rage, and before anyone realized it he'd grabbed the man by the shirt and slammed his head into the wall behind him, practically snarling in his face. Sanders looked dazed from the violent impact and Luke slammed him into the wall once more before the officers and Calum and Ashton were pulling them apart. 

"Let go of me!" he yelled at Calum and Ashton, who each had one of his arms.

"Stop it!" Ashton pulled on Luke's left arm. "They have to talk to him!"

The officers didn't even glance at Luke as they muscled Sanders through the door the boys had just left. Rogers was standing by it looking slightly amused. 

"I've wanted to do that since they brought him in. And we've got that confession on tape. They're having us all wear recorders while we're on cases now. This should be a short case." 

He flashed them a grin and shut the door. Luke sagged against Calum and Ashton.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, suddenly feeling exhausted.

"It's okay," Calum said. "If someone did that to Ash I'd go berserk. I probably would have jumped on him anyway if you hadn't."

Luke pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes, willing his head to stop throbbing. "Let's go sit down."

They'd almost reached the waiting room when a doctor approached them. He looked tense and worried. 

"Oh god," Ashton whispered. Luke leaned against the wall next to him, shaking. 

"Are you Michael's bandmates?" the doctor asked. 

"Yes," Calum said for them all again, but this time it was faint. 

"I'm Dr Johnson. I helped work on Michael."

Past tense. Luke felt like he was going to throw up. He wanted to shake the man into telling him how Michael was. 

"He's gonna pull through." 

The three boys all let out a rush of breath at once and leaned on each other, gripping hands. Luke's legs were shaky. 

"We had to give him some blood and he'll have a small but nasty scar. We almost lost him twice but he pulled though. He's still unconscious and he's gonna be weak for a while, so he'll need lots of rest and quiet."

Luke wanted to laugh. He suddenly felt very light, now that all of the fear and stress was gone. 

A nurse hurried up to Dr Johnson. 

"He's awake now," she said. "He wants to see his friends."

"I think that would be alright if they don't excite him too much," Dr Johnson said. "Do you want to see him?"

They followed him to Michael's room, tired but relieved. It wasn't far and soon they were being ushered into a room like the one they'd been in not long ago, except there was no camera and the bed was in there. 

Michael's eyes were open and he was paler than ever. There was an IV in the crook of his elbow and a heart rate monitor next to him. The steady _beep beep_ reassured Luke and he sank into the chair on Michael's left. 

"Hey," Michael said sleepily, his voice raspy. The doctor left the room and it was just the four boys,  three staring at Michael.  

"You idiot," Luke said wetly, and he realized he was crying. Michael looked concerned and Luke couldn't decide between slapping him and kissing him. "I'd rather he'd shot _me_."

"Well I decided I'd rather he shot _me_ ," said Michael, "so you should understand."

Luke choked on a laugh. "You almost died."

"You would have."

"You can't know that," Luke said, glaring at him.

"Didn't want to risk it," Michael said. 

"I hate you," Luke said. Michael grinned. 

"Kiss me."

"What?" Luke asked, startled. Ashton laughed. 

"I can't move right now so you're going to have to," Michael said. "I'm an invalid, you know. Now kiss me."

Luke stared at Michael and Calum sighed, pushing Luke forward until he finally complied. He leaned over and Michael smiled at him. 

"Oh fuck it," Luke said, and he kissed him. 

Calum whistled and Ashton dragged him out of the room, though Luke could hear him laughing. Michael whined and Luke dragged his attention back, weaving his fingers in Michael's feathery hair. 

He pulled back quickly when Michael winced. 

"Are you okay? Did I hurt you?" He asked worriedly. Michael rolled his eyes. 

"I got shot, it's gonna hurt sometimes. Now get back here."

"Fine," Luke said, leaning in again. 

"Can't deny the invalid," Michael joked. Luke knew he was trying to make him feel better and it was  working. A bit. 

"You're going to be horrid about this, aren't you?" He asked. 

"Yup," said Michael, pulling him in. 


End file.
